The Milwaukee Brewers welcomed back one of the most accomplished pitchers in franchise history on Thursday, announcing the signing of Yovani Gallardo to a one-year, non-guaranteed contract.

Gallardo will join free-agent Jhoulys Chacin - who inked a much more lucrative two-year deal - in trying to provide the Brewers' rotation some much-needed innings as budding ace Jimmy Nelson continues to recover from right-shoulder surgery.

"No matter what, Milwaukee’s been home for me since Day 1," said Gallardo, a second-round pick of the Brewers in 2004 during a Thursday conference call.

"Obviously things have changed a little bit since I’ve been there, but I’m looking forward to it. It’s a totally different group, but it’s just a matter of going there and fitting right in and being one of the veteran guys on the team.

"Sending the younger guys in the right direction and doing anything I can to help."

Gallardo, who turns 32 on Feb. 27, is already Milwaukee's all-time leader with 1,226 strikeouts, and he also ranks among the franchise leaders in winning percentage (third at .582), victories (fifth with 89), earned run average (fifth at 3.69), starts (sixth with 211) and innings pitched (seventh with 1,289 1/3).

The right-hander pitched eight seasons for the Brewers and in both the team's postseason appearances in 2008 and '11. He was traded to the Texas Rangers on Jan. 19, 2015, for current closer Corey Knebel, right-handed pitching prospect Marcos Diplan and infielder Luis Sardinas, who's no longer with the organization.

After going 13-11 with a 3.42 ERA in 33 starts with Texas, Gallardo went 6-8 with a 5.42 ERA in 2016 in Baltimore and 5-10 with a 5.72 ERA in 2017 in Seattle.

Because of that downturn, Gallardo had to settle for a one-year deal that will pay him a $2 million base salary if he makes the opening-day roster and includes a potential $2 million in incentives based on innings pitched and total appearances.

"This is a veteran pitcher who's had a lot of success in his career, who's had a lot of success in this uniform," said general manager David Stearns. "He's still relatively young and he's been throwing the ball hard.

"Obviously, there are reasons that he struggled over the past two years. I think he understands that. I think he's looking to wipe the slate clean, and he's excited to do so back with the Brewers."

With other potential moves in the works - "There's a lot of time left," Stearns said - Gallardo's role heading into spring training is yet to be fully determined.

"It's probably unclear at this stage," Stearns said. "We look at him as a guy coming into compete for either a starting spot or a bullpen role.

"We certainly believe that he's capable of starting in this league and being a productive starter. That's why we signed him."

Gallardo, whose $13 million club option for 2018 was declined by Seattle, is confident he can bounce back from a couple off-years and be a productive pitcher once again in Milwaukee.

"We all know that the last couple years haven’t gone good for me," he said. "I think it’s just a matter of minor adjustments. To join a club like (Milwaukee) with a pitching coach that has a young staff and did what he did, it’s a good fit.

"It’s just a matter of going back to where I was comfortable."

Jhoulys Chacin signed a two-year deal with the Brewers for $15.5 million.(Photo: Associated Press)

He comes to Milwaukee on the heels of a 13-10 season with the San Diego Padres in which he posted a 3.89 ERA and WHIP of 1.27 in 32 starts. He threw 180 1/3 innings and struck out a career-high 153 strikeouts.

Chacin is well-traveled, also having pitched for the Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Angels. But the Brewers liked the fact he induced ground balls 49.1% of the time in 2017, while also allowing fewer than one home run per nine innings.

A lights-out slider also helped limit the hard contact against Chacin, although he was helped by making half his starts at pitcher-friendly Petco Park.

"I think there were a number of elements that led us to pursue Jhoulys, and certainly some of the under the surface metrics were among them," Stearns said.

"I think when we look to pursue a player, we want as many arrows pointing in the right direction as possible, and in this case, we had a number of arrows from the analytical perspective, from the scouting perspective and certainly from the baseline performance from last year that gave us confidence that this is a pitcher who can help us win games here at Miller Park and someone who is going to help stabilize our staff."

Chacin pointed to his durability as the key for his recent success.

"One of the main things was I was healthy all year," said Chacin, whose name is pronounced JO-liss sha-SEEN.

"I have been really working hard to get to the point where I can pitch and don’t think about anything (except) making outs, making my pitches. I think that's why I had the results last year. I was able to do that – just go out and have fun pitching."

After adding Gallardo and Chacin, the Brewers needed to clear one spot on their 40-man roster and did so by designating right-hander Dylan Baker for assignment.

Baker, a right-handed reliever, was claimed off waivers from the Cleveland Indians on Nov. 27.